Methadone

So, standing in line at Toys R Us, with a new, tags-on, purple princess dress draped over my arm, I found myself prone to mood swings. At one moment, elated that I'm taking a more active role in replacing the poorly scripted toys with ones that match our values. At another moment, I'm annoyed that I'm out buying crap in order to lure my daughter's mind from where we never intended her mind to be in the first place.

Then I am up, it is my turn to pay. I plunk down the dress and the woman behind me leans forward, "Oooh, that's a pretty one. Who is it?" She is searching the dress for that small but powerful piece of plastic that tells us which DP dress this is. Her eyes are still scanning, as she shares, "My daughter's favorite is Cinderella."

Really? Because that's my daughter's favorite too! And I'm right now headed home to throw away her favorite princess dress.

5 comments:

As your daughter gets older, how about y'all MAKING the projects together? Even if the costume/accessory/doodad is a "princess" one, C will learn new skills (sewing, carpentry, etc) and will learn how satisfying it is to be able to say "I made it myself!" :-)

I don't know, but I've always heard that it's kinda... well, *rude* to dress up in other people's ceremonial garb. I wouldn't dress my kid up like a nun or a priest, and neither would I tell them it's okay to wear something "vaguely American Indian" when I'm not, well, of that ethnicity. (What tribe is that, anyway?)

arkivarie---We've been moving in that direction, recently making a paper bag dress for the book, Paper Bag Princess. I'm a terrible sewer, carpenter, but your blog has ideas, so feel free to send any beginner projects my way...C and I can learn together. You're spot on in that bringing her to "I can, I made," rather than, "We bought" should be the focus.

conuly---Good point. The American Indian dress was brought in b/c C had seen some photos of me with kids from a school where I used to teach, a Lakota Sioux school on the Pine Ridge Reservation. She had asked questions about the students, and then asked about Pocohontas. I wanted to bring in some sort of non-Pocohontas dress (the dress part if very important to her) and share some stories of actual American Indian women, non-Disneyfied. We used the dress to talk about some Lakota traditions, which I'm sure we could have done without the gear, but my aim was to replace the Disney dresses to expand her play.

Welcome to the Disney Princess Recovery Program

I began this blog in April 2010. It was meant to be a 90 day run at recovery. From Disney Princesses.

It's been over 4 years since I first googled "Why the hale are Disney Princesses everywhere?" I found a lot of advertisements for Disney World. And a definition of hale (strong and healthy).

I started writing here and found all sorts of people were asking the same question. Minus hale.

My kid is over the Disney Princesses, but I am into all the stuff I've learned while taking notes and exploring. Now I post whatever catches my mind about: marketing to children, girls, and occasionally squirrels.